


Immortality

by Squid_Ink



Series: The Eagle and the Cross [18]
Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: F/M, Gen, I Feel Immortal - Tarja, Immortality, Love, Memories - Within Temptation, Nightwish - Freeform, Reincarnation, Sweet, Tarja - Freeform, Tender - Freeform, Two for Tradegy - Nightwish, Within Temptation, little dash of tragic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-09
Updated: 2016-03-09
Packaged: 2018-05-25 14:56:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6199453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Squid_Ink/pseuds/Squid_Ink
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ziio keeps having dreams of dying in a fire. She wakes up one night, and discuss the dreams with her husband Haytham, who also has strange dreams of being killed by their son.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Immortality

_Love can transcend life times_ _—_ _unknown_

* * *

 

" _Mother! Mother! Mother!" the little boy screamed, as a man dragged him away. He kicked, arm out stretched reaching for me. "Mother!"_

_The flames licked around me, hot, hungry and consuming. The wood of the longhouse creaked, it wouldn't last much longer as I watched the boy… my son, yes definitely my son… be taken away to safety. "I love you," I whispered mournfully. The wood creaks again and the burning ceiling comes crashing down around me._

Ziio jerked awake, her eyes snapping open in the darkness of her bedroom. She takes in several deep breathes, willing her heart to stop racing. Her eyes adjust to the gloom and she sees the clock on the nightstand beside her bed; in bold green numbers, the time reads 3:30 am. Ziio saw a picture on the nightstand, two actually, one was of the little boy from her dreams. His hair wasn't unruly but brushed back until it shined, a mischievous grin on his face. It was a school photo of her son, Connor. The second was a family picture, her, her husband and son, at Yellowstone last summer.

 _Husband? Yes, that's right. I'm married. I've been married for eight years. No, that's impossible, he left me. Left me before I realized I was pregnant with Ratonhnhaké:ton._ Ziio frowned, pressing her knuckles against her forehead. She heard someone mumble besides her. She started, before slowly rolling over. She expected her son, but instead there was a grown man in bed beside her. Her first instinct was to kick him out of bed and demand to know what he was doing here.

 _It's just Haytham_ , she told herself after a few moments of intense staring. _Yes, that's right. Haytham Kenway. My husband. But that can't be. We never got married and he's a Templar!_ Ziio frowned at the strange thought. _Templar? That's impossible. That was an order of medieval knights, long since dead. No, Haytham's a lawyer, I'm a vet, and we have a son named Connor. I don't die in a fire._ Ziio closed her eyes, trying to shift through these lucid dream-memories and her actual memories.

She remembers now. She met Haytham in college, by accident. She had ran into him, spilling coffee on a horrible orange sweater he was wearing. He didn't seemed too upset about the sweater, stating that his mother made him put it on since she felt it was too nippy for her precious boy. They started dating; broke up once over a fight, but eventually drifted back together and got married.

Haytham shifted again in his sleep. Ziio sighed and watched him sleep. His dark hair was loose, pooling around his shoulders. One arm ducked beneath his pillow while his other rested on top of it, by his head. Ziio noted that Haytham was starting to grey at the temples. Ziio loved watching him sleep, seeing him utterly relaxed like that always made her smile.

An image flashed over him, of clothes from a bygone time, a ghostly tricorner hat perching upon his head, and a secret hidden blade upon his wrist, the edge of the gauntlet poking out from beneath his pillow. Ziio shook her head and the image faded. A shock of hair fell across Haytham's cheek.

Ziio reached out and pushed it behind his ear. He twitched, but didn't wake. She poked him in the cheek a few times before he slowly opened one eye. "Ziio?" he whispered sleepily.

"Hey," she mumbled, tucking her head in the crook of her elbow.

"What are you doing up?" Haytham asked, grabbing her hand with the one he tucked beneath his pillow.

"I had that dream again," she said, "The one where I die in a fire."

"Ah."

"Do you believe in reincarnation?" Ziio asked, wiggling her hand, so hers is on top so she can stroke his knuckles.

"Not really, why?" Haytham asked.

"I keep having dreams. Though, they feel more like memories. Back during the colonial period, you… or someone that looks a lot like you, came from England looking for something. He had a strange medallion, claimed it was a key. I… or, the woman that I inhabit during the dream, recognized the medallion and agreed to show the man the place if he helped her defeat a man named Edward Braddock. Haytham are you listening?" Ziio asked.

"Uh-huh," Haytham mumbled, "Edward Braddock…"

Ziio smacked him in the shoulder. "Haytham, listen! This is important!"

"I'm tired and I have work in the morning," he grumbled, rolling onto his back and putting a hand over his eyes. "Go on," he prompted.

"He agreed to help with the Braddock issue and the following summer Braddock fell by his hand. I showed him the ancestral cave of my people, and we…" Ziio stopped.

"What? Don't stop now, it was getting to the good part," Haytham said, in a lightly sarcastic tone. Ziio frowned.

"We kissed and sometimes the dream goes into more detail than just that…" Ziio mumbled, blushing.

"Sounds like a good dream," Haytham quipped.

"Anyway," Ziio stressed, "after that the man and I spend some time together, a couple of months, until we learn that Braddock survived for four days after the attack. I was livid that he'd lie to me like that. That he used me only for his own personal gain and didn't care about me or my people. He tried to explain, but I wouldn't let him and he eventually left under pain of death. I never saw him again. I had a little boy, I named him Ratonhnhaké:ton. I was happy with my life until one day when someone put my village to the torch and my son watched me burn to death."

"Isn't Ratonhnhaké:ton our son's middle name?" Haytham asked.

"Yes," Ziio said. "Isn't that uncanny!"

"Sounds to me like you've been reading too many Revolutionary War novels," Haytham said. "It's just a dream Ziio." He rolled over and cupped her cheek. "There is no such thing as reincarnation."

"Really? Tell me you don't feel like we've known each other for much longer than what we've actually have," Ziio said, she pulled his hand away from her face, kissing the palm before putting it down on the bed between them, intertwining their fingers.

"Ziio," Haytham sighed.

"Haytham, tell me!"

"I…" he paused, "sometimes. Sometimes I look at Connor and think 'I never actually got to see this. I never got to teach him this!'" Haytham frowned, "which is stupid really since I've been with him since he was born. Though the most disturbing is that sometimes I think he'll kill me one day because I'm a Templar and he's an Assassin, and then I feel a sharp pain in my neck."

"So you aren't the only one!" Ziio gasped.

"They're just dreams and I think it's because I've been so busy at the office lately. Maybe we should take a trip."

"Your death, what happens when you die in these dreams?" Ziio pressed.

"Ziio, this is idiotic!" Haytham pulled his hand away from hers.

"Just tell me," Ziio whispered. "Please."

"Connor and I are fighting. He wears a white hooded robe. He's looking for the someone but I've sent that person away with the medallion… the name escapes me, but he was a close friend. We fight, there's canon fire coming from ships in the bay. I manage to pin him down, I'm choking him and babble some philosophical nonsense, and then he thrusts his hand at my face, like he means to punch me, but instead a knife appears and stabs me in the neck."

"Our son isn't a killer," Ziio hissed, "and he loves you. You know that."

"Of course I know that," Haytham snipped, though a small smile appears. "He's like my shadow on my days off."

"In my dream I tell the man my name."

"Let me guess he says Kaneihtí:io perfectly," Haytham said.

"No," Ziio breathed. "He doesn't. He calls me Gotdz-zio, I tell him to call me Ziio and he—"

"Calls you Diio. You snap and say it's _Z_ iio," Haytham finished.

"How… did you know?" Ziio whispered.

"….guess," Haytham mumbled. "Maybe these are memories or whatever, the point is that it happened a long time ago," Haytham looked at Ziio, "we're different. The situation is different. They are just dreams."

"If they are real memories from our past… do you think? Do you think you loved me back then?"

Haytham turned and cupped Ziio's cheek again. "Of course I did. I love you now and I loved you then, and I will love you in every life time, for as long as there are life times to live." Haytham said and pressed a kiss to Ziio's forehead.

"I loved you then too and I love you now," she breathed, snuggling closer to her husband. She heard Haytham mumble something, but what she couldn't say. Sleep took over her again and she didn't even notice the thin beam of light coming from the hall.

Connor looked at the ghostly figure of the white robed man. "See," he said in a soft voice, "I told you Ista and Raké:ni, love each other." The man didn't say anything, just turned to Connor and nodded, placing a comforting hand on the boy's head before he vanished. "Goodbye Ratonhnhaké:ton."

* * *

 

_Beneath the candle bed, two souls with everything yet to be said!_ _—_ _Nightwish_

**Author's Note:**

> Assassin's Creed (c) Ubisoft
> 
> A NaruSasu comic where Naruto and Sasuke are modern boys talking about stuff and Sasuke has a weird flashback of a beat up Naruto from the manga's setting; I adapted it to fit Haytham, Ziio and Connor loosely inspired this. What I really wanted was to write Ziio watching Haytham sleep when I remembered that NS comic and was like OH YEAH! PERFECT!
> 
> Hope you liked it!
> 
> Save an author; leave a review!
> 
> I'll assume you hated this if you don't review.


End file.
